Samurai Shifters, Prison 13, Koisuru Antihero The Movie, Niji no Kiseki, Hikari au seimei (inochi). Kokoro ni yorisou. 2, Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! Kurenai Densetsu Japanese Film Trailers

Happy weekend, everyone!

I hope you are all feeling good.

I am midway through a long week of work and I’m continuing with my “two films a day” routine with Japanese and Italian films from the 70s and also running press for a film festival. I also watched the Amazon series, The Boys and was impressed by how the studio adapted the comic book into a series that can go on and get a sequel. It has perfect world building to give depth to everyone and the set-up so that I was eager to watch each new episode to find out how the story would unfold and now I am eager to watch the second season. This week saw me post about the Japanese films at the Vancouver International Film Festival 2019 and the line-up for Raindance 2019 as well as a review for Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.

What is released this weekend?

Japanese Films at the Raindance Film Festival 2019

The 2019 edition of the Raindance Film Festival takes place from September 18th to the 29th and features a small but interesting selection of Japanese films. Without further ado, here they are. Click on the title links to be taken to more information:

Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood Dir: Quentin Tarantino (2019) (USA)

Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood   

Release Date: August 14th, 2019 (UK)

Duration: 161 mins.

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Writer: Quentin Tarantino (Screenplay)

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Margaret Qualley,

Website IMDB

Quentin Tarantino is, without a doubt, one of Hollywood’s best movie makers. He has cemented his place by making violent cinematic spectacles that are riffs on genre conventions replete with references and re-purposed iconic imagery from older genre films to synthesise entertaining experiences. The style is often the substance and it often feels like being in a closed world as thinly sketched characters act out their tales surrounded by callbacks to older entertainment. Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood feels like his most mature film to date because it is more of an open world. It speaks to more than just narrow sets of film fans as it relies upon and subverts the shared cultural memory of a wider audience who grew up with 50s and 60s Americana because the film is a melancholy love letter to a lost age in Hollywood where the transition from the fading allure of westerns to the glamorous swinging 60s was about to be knocked off course by the grisly fate of Sharon Tate, something that signalled the end of an era of innocence.

Japanese Films at the Vancouver International Film Festival 2019

The Vancouver International Film Festival 2019 runs from September 26th to October 11th and it has a fantastic selection of East Asian films with one particular highlight being the HK flick, Still Human, winner of the Audience Award at this year’s Osaka Asian Film Festival. There is a nice compliment of Japanese films, three of which are found in the Gateway strand while Melancholic and Still Human are in Dragons and Tigers. Here’s the round-up of Japanese films.

Kakou no Futari, Ossan’s Love: Love or Dead, Ni no kuni, Revival II Ai to biseibutsu, How to Identify the Correct Bus, Narenai Futari, I’m Crazy, I Want to Be a Farmer, The man most feared by the US military (USA), Seisyun Kaleidoscope, Mugen Foundation, Hoshi o sutete, Riben guizi Japanese Devils Confessions of Imperial Army Soldiers from Japan’s War Against China Japanese Film Trailers

Happy weekend, everyone.

Autumn is approaching!

I’m at the end of a 12-day working week. I watched a looooot of films. Usually one in the morning (horror/thriller) and then one in the evening (yakuza). I also watched Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood – thoughts on that next week. I have to pack in doing PR for the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival which launches in October.

This week I posted about two festivals taking place, Horror Hiho, which is dedicated to horror movies, and OP Pictures pink film festival, which is self-explanatory. There are too many films from both to put in the trailer posts so they got their own separate posts. I also did my preview for the Japanese films at the 2019 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival – lots of master film-makers present.

What films are playing this weekend?

OP PICTURES+FEST 2019 Films (August 23 – September 05)

“OP PICTURES + Fes 2019” is back for another year, screening between August 23-September 5 at Theater Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Just like last year’s event, this is a collection of pink films produced by the movie production company, Okura Movie, with the racy bits cut out to secure the R15 rating to open it up to a wider audience. Familiar names grace the staff and cast lists although one director from mainstream and indie cinema makes his debut here in a pink film as director and actor. Whether or not he gets up to some steamy action will only be found out by the people that watch these films. There are 15 titles in total and their release pattern is spread out over two weeks and they are screened two per evening.

It goes without saying that this stuff is NSFW so you have been warned.

Here’s the information that is available so far plus a trailer: 

Japanese Films at the Toronto International Film Festival 2019 (05th-15th September)

This year’s Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 05th to the 15th and they have announced their selection of films. There is a great slate of titles from some of the big hitters in the industry with both live-action and anime getting represented. Yes, it’s an auteur-driven selection although Contemporary World Cinema has an award-winning indie drama by newbie director Hikari. It’s joined in that strand by a drama by Koji Fukada which was at Locarno along with a film in the strand Masters which has Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s latest, To the Ends of the Earth. Wavelengths 2 features a short film collection, SUN RAVE, which has a short from Japan by director Tomonari Nishikawa. Special Presentation has Makoto Shinkai’s Weathering with You and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s The Truth. There are Japanese inclusions in the documentaries Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema and Dads and Midnight Madness features Takashi Miike’s latest work!

A Preview of Summer of Horror Hiho 2019

Summer of Horror Hiho is an event running from August 23rd to September 06th where horror flicks get screened in cinemas in east, central and western Japan – Tokyo: Kineka  Oomori in Shinagawa ward; Nagoya: Cinema SKHole in Nakamura ward; Osaka: Theater Seven in Yodogawa ward. Can you remember Vampire Clay? That horror movie was featured as part of this horror movie festival and since then it has travelled around the world and is easily available on legal streaming services so it’s worth keeping an eye on this festival to see what other discoveries there are. This weekend sees another edition of the fest and some of the films have already been shown at western festivals.

What are the film’s in this year’s line-up?

On top of having seminal 70s horror flicks Driller Killer (1979) and The Crazies (1973) there are these films:

Dance With Me Black Maiden: Chapter A, Aesop’s Game, Cherry Blossoms and Demons, Matsunaga Tenma Murder Case Japanese Film Trailers

Happy weekend, everyone.

I hope you are all well.

I’m midway through a 12-day week and I’ve cushioned each day with films – an 80s horror in the morning and a yakuza movie in the evening. I’ve finished writing initial PR for a film festival that will launch in October and now it’s a case of practising Japanese for guests who will be attending.

This week I posted a review of the film Lying to Mom and a preview of l’Etrange Festival.

What is released this weekend?

Japanese Films at L’Etrange Festival 2019

The L’Etrange Festival runs for its 25th edition from September 04 to 15 in Paris and it continues in its mission to show genre cinema and exult in strange delights from some of cinema’s greatest minds. The Japanese focus features familiar live-action films and some animation, some of which I have reviewed. The biggest film here is the newest Takashi Miike, Hatsukoi, which was at Cannes earlier in the year and will be released in Japan next year, and there’s also Branded to Kill, the super hitman film from Seijun Suzuki.

What Japanese films are programmed at L’Etrange this year?